Ohio Gunowners Battling For Uniform CCW Progress

Gun Week Magazine

by Dave Workman
Senior Editor

June 1, 2004

Months ago, Ohio lawmakers finally passed legislation that allows Buckeye State gunowners who meet the requirements to carry concealed handguns (CCW) for personal protection, but all over the state, gun owners are meeting with varying degrees of continued resistance, and they are taking action, usually with positive results.

Chad Baus with Ohioans for Concealed Carry (OFCC), and grassroots gun rights activist Bruce Beatty both report cases where it appears local gun policies are colliding with the new state statute.

The strongest resistance appears to be in Toledo, where reports surfaced last month that Mayor Jack Ford was adamant about prohibiting firearms in the city’s parks, even though the new state CCW law specifically allows licensed citizens to do so. Calls to the mayor and Police Chief Mike Navarre were not returned.

Activist Jim Irvine filed a lawsuit to force Cuyahoga County Sheriff Gerald McFaul to begin accepting concealed pistol license (CPL) applications in early April, as required by law. McFaul had originally announced he would not accept CPL applications until late May or early June, according to OFCC.

In Summit County, an executive order issued by County Executive James McCarthy that prohibited guns in all county buildings and vehicles on county property was amended to comply with the requirements of the new state law.

There is even one problem with a local library board posting property outside libraries off limits, which OFCC says is a violation of the preemption clause.

Localities Complying

According to Baus, county and city governments are complying with the preemption section of the statute “once they are advised of the law.”

“We’ve been having one of our volunteers, an attorney, send a letter every time we’re made aware of a municipality considering a new ordinance,” Baus told Gun Week. “For the most part, that letter has been all it takes. They weren’t aware of the intent of the legislature. Most cities, towns, villages are doing the right thing when they are advised of state law.”

He acknowledged, though, that some officials have to be “dragged kicking and screaming,” and he included the Cuyahoga County sheriff on that list.

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“The sheriff had to be sued and now he is spending taxpayers’ money to cover the costs of the man who sued him,” Baus observed.

Resistance to the new law is not just among government officials. A related flap is developing over a ban on concealed carry in Kroger’s chain stores in southwest Ohio. A decision by Kroger management to post signs in those stores, asking customers not to carry while shopping in the stores, is causing an uproar on the Internet.

“While the Ohio Conceal and Carry law does give individuals the right to carry a concealed weapon,” wrote Kroger Consumer Affairs spokesman John Langlitz, in a note to one gunowner, “it also gives businesses the right to specify whether or not they will allow customers to carry concealed weapons on their property.”

Langlitz’s letter also noted, “. . . our obligation to our valued customers is to not only provide them with quality products and services, but also a safe place to shop.”

Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, told Gun Week that he is not “overly alarmed” about the situation in Ohio because he has seen similar problems in other states with newly-passed concealed carry laws. He likened the problem to “growing pains” and suggested that after a time, these problems usually solve themselves.

Kroger IN & KY Policy

He seemed more concerned with the Kroger situation, noting that the store also has outlets in neighboring Kentucky and Indiana that also have “shall issue” CCW laws, and none of those stores appear to have signs. He also noted that it is a safe assumption that armed citizens have been shopping in those stores for years with no problems.

Likewise, Baus pondered, “What do they (Kroger managers) think about their neighbors in Ohio that they do not think about citizens in Kentucky? Why is it a safety issue in this one little corner of Ohio?”

Langlitz did not respond to an e-mail inquiry from Gun Week about his letter to gunowner Dan Sweet.

Grassroots activists like Beatty seem to be making the most impression on local governments. Beatty told Gun Week that he has been “very active in pro-gun politics” in the Toledo area for “a long time.” Retired from the Air Force, Beatty made himself “very familiar” with the state statute, and with the Ohio Supreme Court’s ruling in Klein v. Leis, the case that took the concealed carry issue through the courts. He has also studied Toledo’s municipal code and believes that he may have Toledo officials backed into a legislative corner.

“I think I may have won this little battle,” he commented.